Jutta Maria Rawcliffe

She was born in Gleiwitz, Silesia, Germany on October 30, 1929.

Jutta was the fifth of seven children of the late Wilhelm and Elsa Heinisch.

She is survived by her husband, James “Jim”; her children, Susanna (Phil) Callaghan, Jutta Anne, Rupert (Roz) Rawcliffe, and Charlotte (Walter) Yates; grandsons, Thomas and Harry Rawcliffe; granddaughters, Christa and Katie Yates; her sisters, Ursula and Maria; and brother, Herbert.

Jutta was educated in Gleiwitz High School and fled from the invading Russian Army with her mother and three siblings in January 1945. For six weeks they traveled through Poland and Germany partly by train and on foot. The trains were subject to machine gun fire from the air. They missed the bombing of Dresden by one day. They settled as refugees in Schondorf on Ammersee, south of Munich.

Later they relocated to Dusseldorf, where they were joined by her father, two older sisters and a brother.

After staying in Northern France and England, she studied in the Cologne Technical Institute, where she qualified as a translator and then as an interpreter. During her studies, she met her future husband, Jim in ‘Die Brucke’ the Anglo- German Club in Dusseldorf in 1955.

Two years later, they were engaged and had a civil wedding in St. Ives, Huntingdonshire on March 23, 1957, followed by a Nuptial Mass in Dusseldorf on June 4. Following her marriage, she worked as a bilingual secretary for the owner and chairman of a wine importing company in London. She was a keen gardener and member of the Royal Horticultural Society.

She relocated to Fredonia with her husband and two daughters in 1984. Leisure activities included membership in the Shakespeare Club and the American Contract Bridge League. Since her husband’s retirement in 1991, she traveled extensively in Europe and the States, including accompanying her husband on volunteer assignments in Bulgaria and Egypt. In Bulgaria, she taught classes in German and English in local schools.

She celebrated her Diamond Wedding earlier this year and was happy to receive greetings and good wishes from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

Calls may be made Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. at the St. Joseph Church Gathering Room, 145 E. Main Street, Fredonia, N.Y., where a Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday at St. Joseph Church at 10 a.m. Interment will be in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

Flowers gratefully declined. Memorial contributions in Jutta’s memory may be made to the RSD Support Association (www.rsds.org/donate), or St. Joseph Church.

Online condolences may be made at larsontimkofuneralhome.com.

Arrangements by David J. Dengler, LARSON-TIMKO Funeral Home, 20 Central Avenue, Fredonia, N.Y.